Malian military enters fabled Timbuktu

Graphics

SEVARE, Mali Malian soldiers backed by French helicopters and paratroopers entered Timbuktu on Monday, after al-Qaida linked militants who ruled the outpost for nearly 10 months fled into the desert.

“Timbuktu has fallen,” said the city's mayor, Ousmane Halle, in a telephone interview from the capital, Bamako, where he has been in exile since the Islamist militants took over the city 10 months ago. He said he planned to return to his city today.

The advance to Timbuktu, a day after French and African troops took control of the former rebel stronghold of Gao, may be the beginning of the end of France's major involvement in the conflict here.

Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was a little more cautious than the mayor in his assessment of the situation in Timbuktu on Monday evening, saying on television station TF1: “French and Malian forces are liberating the city. It's not completely finished, but it's well on its way.”

President Francois Hollande suggested that his troops might soon stop their northward advance.

“We are winning this battle,” he said in televised remarks. “When I say, ‘We,' this is the Malian army, this is the Africans, supported by the French.”

He continued, “Now, the Africans can take over” the difficult task of flushing militants from the vast empty stretches of Mali's arid northern countryside.

The advance trigged celebration in the streets of Timbuktu as well as among the thousands of residents who fled rather than live under strict Islamic rule and the dire poverty that worsened after the tourist industry collapsed.

“In the heart of people from northern Mali, it's a relief – freedom finally,” said Cheick Sormoye, a resident who fled to Bamako.

Timbuktu, a city of mud-walled buildings and 50,000 people, was for centuries a seat of learning and a trading center along caravan routes that carried slaves, gold and salt.

It has been home to a renowned trove of some 20,000 manuscripts, some dating to the 12th century. It was not known how many were destroyed in a blaze reportedly set by the Islamists before they left.

The city's libraries, along with its mud architecture and the tombs of hundreds of Sufi saints, have made it one of the most important historical sites in Africa. Islamists were said to have smashed many of the tombs, saying the practice of venerating saints was un-Islamic.

Michael Covitt, head of the Malian Manuscript Foundation, called it a “desecration to humanity.”

The militants seized Timbuktu last April and began imposing a strict version of Shariah religious law across northern Mali, carrying out amputations and public executions. Women could be whipped for going out in public without wearing veils, while men could be lashed for having cigarettes.

The mayor said the Islamists burned his office as well as the Ahmed Baba institute, a library rich in historical documents.

“They torched all the important ancient manuscripts. The ancient books of geography and science,” he said. Some reportedly had been removed or hidden away for safekeeping.

.

Islamists still control the provincial capital of Kidal farther north and are said to have dug tunnels, trenches and caves from which to launch attacks.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.